Siege Diary by Yakov Rubanchik “Drawing the Siege”. 1941-1944

Yakov Osipovich (Iosifovich) Rubanchik (1899-1948) was a leningrad architect. He was born in Taganrog and in the early 1920s came to Petrograd. In 1928 he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Higher Art and Technical Institute (VHUTEIN). Yakov Rubanchik participated in various architecture competitions and won more than 30 awards. He designed several buildings in Taganrog, Odessa and Leningrad. Together with other architects (A. Barutchev, I. Gilter and I. Meerzon) he designed and eventually participated in the construction of buildings for factory kitchens in different parts of the city.

During the Great Patriotic War Yakov Rubanchik and his family stayed in the besieged Leningrad. He was in charge of the architecture workshop of GIOP, made measurement sketches, drawings of Vorontsovsky Palace and Maltese chapel. Apart from his main task Yakov Rubanchik made sketches of the things he witnessed in the besieged city.

Since 1944 Yakov Rubanchik worked at the workshop of Lenproekt Institute, developing housing projects for the new city districts (Viborsky, Kalininsky, Moskovsky).

The exhibition features more than 140 drawings by Yakov Rubanchik from the series “Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War. Architect’s diary”.  Sharp artist’s eye notices the dreadful details of the everyday life of the besieged city, which stayed behind the scene of the official war photo and video reports revealed recently.

Also displayed are 22 pages from the series “Rastrelyanniy Rastrelli” [Shot Rastrelli]: sketches of the ruined palaces in the suburbs made by Rubanchik right after the siege was broken.

Admission is free